Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

House Approves Pain Relief Act as Tax Bill Attachment

As part of a tax relief bill passed yesterday on a 237-174
vote, House members yesterday approved Senate Majority Whip Don
Nickles' (R-Okla.) Pain Relief Promotion Act (S. 1272), which would block
Oregon's assisted suicide law CongressDaily/A.M.
reports. But the bill now faces a potential veto from President
Clinton and a filibuster in the Senate by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
(Norton et al., CongressDaily/A.M., 10/27).
Nickles' provision would prohibit doctors from prescribing
"lethal doses of federally controlled drugs to terminally ill
patients," effectively voiding Oregon's law (Barnett, Portland Oregonian, 10/26).
Several medical groups maintain the bill would "deter pain
treatment [on a nationwide scale] by putting the Drug Enforcement
Administration in charge of determining if a physician prescribed
high doses of painkillers in an attempt to alleviate pain or
assist in a suicide" (Rovner, CongressDaily, 10/26).
Clinton has said that he would veto the tax bill because he
opposes some of its other provisions, including $28 billion in
Medicare givebacks (see story #1), but the
"White House has said little about" the pain relief act, the
Oregonian reports. Both Attorney General Janet Reno
and White House advisers "have raised objections" to pain relief
act. Although Clinton "opposes the practice of assisted suicide
... it's unclear whose advice he would heed," the
Oregonian reports (Portland Oregonian,
10/26). While Wyden has "vowed ... all year" to filibuster the
measure should it reach the Senate floor, he "has not [yet]
decided what to do," CongressDaily reports. A Wyden
aide said this week that the senator "reserves the right to
filibuster" (CongressDaily, 10/26). Wyden said he
"remained uncertain about" the pain relief bill's fate because
the president's veto letter did not address it, but added, "I'm
ruling out no options. There will be no time agreement unless it
is clear that the will of Oregon voters ... is taken into
account" (CongressDaily/A.M., 10/27).

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